Knockdown shelving



May 26, 1953 s. H. MARKS KNOCKDOWN SHELVING Filed April 15, 1950INVENTOR SQUL. H. MFI RKS ATTORNEY Patented May 26, 1953 UNITED STATESPATENT OFFICE KNOCKDOWN SHELVING Saul H. Marks, Brooklyn, N. Y.,assignor to Phoenix Closet Accessories, Inc., New York, N. Y., acorporation of New Jersey Application April 15, 1950, Serial No. 156,169

' Claims. 1

This invention relates to containers in the form of a flexible walledbody having means for collapsibly supporting a plurality of horizontalshelf and other wall members therein to form a shelved container unitwith upper means at the upper portion of the unit for han ing the samein connection with a suitable support. More particularly, the inventiondeals with a device of the character described, having shelf memberswith corner brackets for receiving shelf spacing and coupling rods andfor maintaining said rods in perpendicular position with respect to theshelves.

The novel features of the invention will be best understood from thefollowing description, when taken together with the accompanyingdrawing, in which certain embodiments of the invention are disclosedand, in which, the separate parts are designated by suitable referencecharacters in each of the views and, in which:

Fig. 1 is a perspective view of one form of device which I employ withpart of the construction broken away and in section.

Fig. 2 is an exploded perspective view of two similar corner bracketsemployed on the shelves of the device for reception of spacing andsupporting rods,-

Fig. 3 is a partial section on the line 3--3 of Fig. 2; and

Fig. 4 is a view similar to Fig. 1 showing only part of the constructionand showing a modification.

In Fig. 1 of the drawing, I have shown at 19 a flexible walled containerhaving relatively wide front and back walls II and i2 and narrow sidewalls l3 and I4 suitably joined to form a tubular body and finished atupper and lower ends in top and bottom wall members l5 and It. Thevarious walls of the container Ill can be composed of any suitable,flexible and readily foldable material or fabric and, in some instances,transparent or translucent plastic materials can be employed. In theconstruction shown in Fig. 1, the front wall I I has two largerectangular openings I! and I8 controlled by door or closure members I9and 20 by U-shaped arrangement of separable fasteners I9, 20 havingdouble sliders, respectively, at 2| and 22. The fastener arrangement I9is such as to facilitate lowering of the upper door l9 by respectivelygiving access to the upper compartments, the bottom or shelf members ofwhich are indicated at 23 and 24, whereas, the bottom door 29 is adaptedto be opened upwardly to give access to compartments having bottomshelves 25 and 26.

At this time, it is well to consider the brief showing in Fig. 4 of thedrawing, where I have indicated at ID a modified form of container whichwill diifer from the container ll] primarily in having one longseparable fastener 21 arranged centrally and longitudinally of one ofthe side walls, for example, the wall Id. The device of Fig. 4 differsalso from Fig. 1 in the hanger mechanism employed which will be laterdescribed.

Arranged inwardly of and abutting the top Wall i5 is a shelf 28, similarto the shelves 23, 2:2 and 25. All of these shelves have, at cornerportions thereof, and at upper and lower surfaces of the cornerportions, similar triangular brackets 29, the upper brackets only beingindicated in Fig. 1. However, the companion lower bracket 29' isillustrated in Fig. 2. This bracket is identical to the bracket 29 butsimply mounted in an inverted position. In view of the'similarity of thebrackets 29, 29, the brief description of one will apply to both.

The bracket 29 is formed from a single sheet of material fashionedcentrally to form an elongated cylinder 30. The cylinder extends fromthe central portion of the long side 3| of the plate to the cornerportion 32 thereof, the cylinder being formed by simply bending thispart of the sheet and shaping it to the cylindrical form. The end of thecylinder 30, adjacent the corner 32, is bevelled so as to dispose shelfcoupling and supportingrods 33 at the corner portions of the device andthe bevelling, which is generally indicated at 34, has outwardly roundedside walls 35 adapted to engage bends in the rods 33 where the angularlyextending mounting ends 3'! .of the rods join the vertical portionsthereof. These offset wall portions 35 maintain the rods 33 againstswinging movement or, in other Words, in a perpendicularly erectposition and this, in combination with the arrangement of the rods atall corner portions of the device, maintains rigidity throughout thecomplete assemblage.

The shelves 25 can be composed of any suitable thin but firm materialsuch as fibreboard, metal, plastics or the like, and this shelf will beadapted to receive, at the corner portions thereof, four prong or splitrivet members, namely the members 33 and 39 of the plate 29, andcorresponding members 38' and 39' of the plate 29.

The plate 29 has apertures 40, 4| and the plate 29 has correspondingapertures 40', M and, in coupling two of the bracket plates 29, 29 toeach corner portion of a shelf, it will be apparent that the prong orsplit rivet portions 38, 39 pass through the apertures 4|, 40'respectively, whereas the members 38', 39' pass through the apertures4|, 40, respectively. These prongs or rivets are clinched-over insecuring the plates in position.

The bottom shelf 26 will have the plates 29 secured to the upper surfaceonly of said shelf 26 and any suitable means, such as a. dummy plate canbe arranged on the lower surface of the shelf 26 for reinforcing andsecuring the plates 29 in position.

The upper wall I of the container 1 0 has eyelets 42 in the cornerportions thereof, through which rods 43, having oifset mounting ends 44,are arranged, these ends engaging upper corner plates 29 as will beapparent and, flexibly coupled with the rods 43, are yokes 35 with whichsupporting hooks 46 are coupled, these hooks providing means for hangingthe complete device.

upon a rod or in connection with other supports.

In Fig. 4 of the drawing, I have shown a slight modification in thehanger, wherein rods 43' extend from the side walls of the containertoward each other, rather than being joined across the side walls, asseen at Fig. 1. With this construction, yokes 5 and supporting hooks 46,similar tothe yokes 45 and 48, are employed. 7

It will be understood that the rods 33 have oilfset mounting ends 31 atboth upper and lower ends thereof. The offset lower ends are coupledwith the plates 29 which can be regarded as. the top plates for sake ofdescription and the offsets at the upper ends of the rods are coupledwith the lower or bottom plates 29'. With the separable fastenerconstruction sl1own, it will be apparent that the dual sliders 2i and 22can be moved laterally to give access to first the top or the bottomshelf, or the fasteners may be opened to a greater extent to give accessto the intermediate shelves. It will be apparent that any desiredarrangement of shelves can be employed. v

In the shipment of the device, the entire flexible container will assumea fiat compact Dack= age with the respective shelves arranged one uponthe other in this package, all of the rods 33, as

well as the hangers 43, being detached. In as sembla'ge, the shelves areplaced in the container with rods 3-3 coupled with upper corner portionsthereof and the shelves are successively coupled until the con'ip-leteassemblage has been produced.

Devices 'of the kind under consideration can be used for the convenientstorage of "articles of any typ'e and kind. The articles will be pro--tected against the collection of dust and dirt and will be accessiblefor removal from any one of the shelf members whenever desired. In someinstances, the entire container, except for the open side thereof, canbe composed of opaque material, but the opening side is preferablytransparent or, at least, translus'cent, so as to determine articlesarranged upon the respective shelves. 4

Having fully described my invention, What I claim as new and desire tosecure by Letters Patent is:

1. A shelf construction of the character described comprising aplurality of shelves, having channeled triangular brackets at cornerportions thereof, the channels of the brackets being arranged diagonallythereon, rigid rods having angularly disposed coupling ends adapted toenter the channels of said brackets, brackets of intermediate shelvesbeing disposed upon upper and lower surfaces of the shelves, whereby, incoupling the rods therewith, said rods-join, sup

port and space the shelves one with respect to a anotherin forming ashelf assemblage, andhang- 4 ers detachably coupled with upper bracketsof an upper shelf in a series.

2. A shelf construction comprising a plurality of horizontally disposedshelf members arranged one above the other in spaced relationship,corne-mortionsof. said shelfmembers having triangular corner bracketschanneled diagonally, the brackets of intermediate shelves beingdisposed upon the upper and lower surfaces thereof and being of commonconstruction, and rigid was having angularly extending ends detachablycoupled with the channels of said brackets for coupling, supporting andspacing the shelf members one with respect to the other.

'3. A shelf construction comprising a plurality of horizontally disposedshelf members arranged one above the other in spaced relationship,corner portions of said shelf members having triangular corner bracketschanneled diagonally, the brackets of interr'nediate'she'lves beingdisposed upon the upper and lower surfaces thereof and being of commonconstruction, rigid rods having angularly extending ends detachablycoupled with the channels of said brackets for coupling, supporting andspacing the shelf members one with respect to the other, and means onthe channels of said brackets engaging the rods, maintaining the rods inperpendicular position on said brackets.

i. A shelf construction comprising a plurality f horizontally disposedshelf members arranged one above the otherin spaced relationship, cornerportions of said shelf members having triangular corner bracketschanneled diagonally, the brackets of intermediate shelves beingdisposed upon the upper and lower surfaces thereof and being of commonconstruction, rigid rods having angularly extending ends detachablycoupled with the Gila-111181501 said brackets for coupling, supportingand spacing the shelf members one with respect to the other, means onthe channels of said brackets engaging the rods, maintaining the rods inperpendicular position on said brackets, and hangers coupled with theupper brackets of the 'top'sh'elf member and extending above the upperportion of said shelf n'zenibe'r.

5. A shelf construction comprising a plurality of horizontally disposedshelf members arranged one above the oth'efr in spaced relationship,corner portions of 'said'shelf members having triangular corner bracketschanneled diagonally, the brackets of intermediate shelves beingdisposed u-po'n theupp'er and lower surfaces thereof and being of commonconstruction, rigid rods having angularly extending ends detachabiy coinpied with the channels of said brackets "for coupling, supporting andspacing the shelf members one with respect to the other, and eachbracket having a pair ofsojc'ket's and a pair of split rivets engagingthe sockets of an opposed bracket in securing the brackets t'otlle shelfmembers.

- 'SAUL'H. MARKS.

References Citetilh the file of this patent,

